blurry face - phan

chapter eighteen

// blurry face was ranked #386 I feel like I'm going up in the world (of fan fiction) //

dan

Dan walks into school the next day, looking down at the bandages wrapped over his hands where the glass stuck into his skin.

His mother may be sucky and stupid, but she is a doctor so she cleaned Dan's scratches and dug the tiny pieces of glass out of his skin before bandaging them up.

Dan pulls his earphones out, wrapping them around his phone, which he slides into his pocket as he arrives at the school gates. Dan prays he won't get asked about his hands, but he knows that he will.

"Hey Dan!" Pj says as he approaches, "how was your- What happened to your hands?"

Dan had already thought up a well rehearsed lie. He wasn't very good at lying though, and he'd forgotten the lie he'd thought up.

"Uh... My window broke," Dan says, "I slammed it too hard and the glass shattered onto my hands."

"You'd have to have some serious biceps for that," Pj says doubtfully.

"No, well, you see, my window is really old, like my house so..." Dan says, "y'know, it was already worn out."

"Right..." Pj says, obviously still not quite convinced by Dan's lie, Dan doesn't blame him either - a window? - Dan wants to punch himself for being such an idiot.

"Hey guys!" Connor says, approaching them and saving Dan from any further investigation from Pj.

Dan shoves his hands in his jean pockets to avoid any further questions from anyone. He doesn't know if his heart or brain can take any more terrible lies.

Dan struggles to concentrate during school. His mind is focused on his parents. When he'd walked back inside, his father was nowhere to be seen and his mother was in the kitchen, cleaning up the broken glass.

She'd stopped in shock when she saw her son, intoxicated and hands dripping with blood. She'd rushed to help him. But when Dan woke in the morning, she'd already left for work.

He doesn't know why his parents are so desperate to hold onto their marriage. Was it for his sake? Because if it was, they should know the they'd help Dan's sanity by getting a divorce. Or was it something deeper? Or just the fact that deep down, they refuse to accept that they aren't right for each other, that they've lost their love.

Whatever it is, Dan just wishes they'd get a divorce. Most kids dread their parents splitting, but after living with constant fighting and the infidelities of his parents, he's had it. He just wants them to go on their separate ways and stop ruining his already ruined life.

"And I suppose you can tell us what we're studying this term in drama Mr Howell," his teacher says from the front, "since you've been paying attention."

"Uh..." Dan stammers, his cheeks growing hot and pink and his eyes flicker towards the ground, but then the guy beside him - Charlie, Dan thinks - leans over and whispers 'elements of a good production', and that's all Dan has so he says it.

"Um, elements of a good production?" Dan says, hi response sounding more like a question than an answer.

"Yes," the teacher replies with a surprised look, "yes, that is what we're doing! We can see that-"

Dan tunes out again for the rest of the lesson, too caught up in thoughts about his own life, and what else could go wrong.

After the bell rings, Dan finds the guy who helped him. It isn't hard, he has a bright blue hoodie on and light brown hair.